[whichfawkes]

Women can more readily get the kind of attention they want, with minimal effort.

Getting emotionally invested in an AI seems to me like it would go hand in hand with giving up on human relationships. I'm pretty sure men are more likely to do that than women.

[0_____0]

> ... get the attention they want, minimal effort

I...uh, have you asked a woman whether this is true? Like, ask the nearest woman to confirm this and report back.

Most women I have spoken to about this can get attention generally, but very little of it is desirable attention.

There's also a bias I've noticed where people don't consider women that they don't personally find attractive when talking about these things - they're basically invisible.

[sho_hn]

You find this "Women don't have this problem! They can have a relationship whenever they want" sentiment in so many conversations on Hacker News, and it's so unempathetic.

The premise is not true for many women. And even if it were, it's not necessarily any easier to get attention from someone you are interested in yourself. And women have to deal with social anxiety, fears of making themselves vulnerable, self-confidence, body image, etc. around pursuing or initiating relationships just as anyone.

I think this is based in people misreading dating app metrics or something, and completely neglects trying to imagine what life is like for the person.

[antisthenes]

> Like, ask the nearest woman to confirm this and report back.

You can test this yourself trivially on any dating app pretending to be a woman. In fact this is the purest form of the test, because there's 0 chance of anyone else misreporting their experiences.

> Most women I have spoken to about this can get attention generally, but very little of it is desirable attention.

I think in the dating market, most attention for both sexes is undesirable. However, since women receive comparatively more attention, they are much more likely to receive at least some attention that is desirable.

> There's also a bias I've noticed where people don't consider women that they don't personally find attractive when talking about these things - they're basically invisible.

Wait till you find out how big that bias is in the other direction.

[commandlinefan]

> very little of it is desirable attention

that doesn't contradict what he said - just that the "undesirable" attention is still more desirable than an AI boyfriend could offer. Whereas an AI girlfriend can tautologically offer more desirable attention than the zero attention a significant percentage of men are able to achieve.

[AISnakeOil]

How does one discern between undesirable and desirable attention?

Asking for a friend.

[sergiomattei]

Thank you for speaking what’s on my mind.

It’s shameful that this self-deprecating idea seems to have made it to the mainstream, and even worse that young men are believing it.

[RajT88]

You nailed it. The article says:

> Are said she believes that reflects a gender-based slant — social media platforms freely allow sex-related ads only if the intended audience is men.

So when you've got a huge hungry audience, willing to pay money, the platforms are incentivized to enforce their rules about ads unequally. Content and apps geared towards women, or gay men, are such a small piece of the pie by comparison that there's less incentive to look the other way.

The companies being accused of this unequal enforcement, of course, have a long history of doing things for no other reason than they can make a little extra money on it by not respecting their users. It's entirely believable.

[EatingWithForks]

> Content and apps geared towards women, or gay men, are such a small piece of the pie by comparison that there's less incentive to look the other way.

Sorry, we're talking about Instagram, an app we know puts huge targets on women, especially young women! I have no idea what you're talking about here about nicheness. Fashion products alone are worth way more than the entire porn industry. Not including beauty, skincare, cosmetic surgery, wellness/cleansing, etc...

[spinach]

They can easily get low-grade (and unwanted) attention, but high-grade attention of the opposite sex is just as tough as it is for men. From men's point of view that tends to be more sex only it might seem like women have it easy, but women tend to want more emotional involvement in relationships. Hence why women read more in depth about love and sex in romance novels, and why men watch porn and buy prostitutes. Not saying there aren't men that don't enjoy romance novels or that women don't watch porn, only that it's a very clear that the sexes are biased that way.

[themagician]

Women can more readily get attention, but not necessarily the kind of attention they want. Women also become emotionally invested in fictional characters or celebrities. Same, same, but different.